The shrine to Peer Abbas in Pattoki shows that not just its non-Islamic past, Pakistan is also erasing its indigenous Islamic traditions.

As we drove down
the three-lane highway, Iqbal Qaiser, my mentor and travel companion, pointed
towards a settlement on our left. This was the town of Pattoki. From afar I
could see small houses and shops, and rising from their midst was a tall
minaret of a mosque. This minaret can be seen in every village and town of
Pakistan, announcing that these lands are now dominated by Islam.

Not so long ago,
the minarets must have been accompanied by turrets of temples and domes of
gurdwaras. Not anymore. The turrets and the domes exist somewhere, hidden
within the locality, as if embarrassed of their own existence, knowing well
that they don’t belong here anymore. The minarets, when they existed in a
multi-religious society, were more modest in height, humbly accepting that
their truth is only one of the several truths. After the creation of Pakistan,
they became more assured of their path and became prouder and taller.

A few years ago,
when I visited the city of Nankana Sahib in Pakistan’s Punjab province for the
first time, I noticed the tall minaret of a mosque looking down at Gurdwara
Janamasthan Guru Nanak. This holy city presents a challenge to the homogeneity
of society. Hundreds of thousands of Sikhs descend here every year to celebrate
the birthday of Guru Nanak, while the government looks after and renovates the
Sikh shrines. The minaret at this mosque was one of the tallest minarets I have
ever seen attached to a mosque.

“That is an
interesting shrine,” said Iqbal Qaiser, as he pointed towards the minaret
rising from the middle of Pattoki. I later found out that the shrine was but a
small part of a huge complex. The grave of the saint around which this shrine
was raised was located in one corner of the courtyard. “The shrine belongs to
Peer Abbas. He is popularly known as Kutiyan
wali sarkar (the master of dogs)?” The wali
here signifies female. Almost all Sufis are referred to as females in
iconography. This is in relation with God who is represented as a male figure.
In Sufi poetry, a devotee, or a Sufi, presents himself as Heer, the legendary
Punjabi folk lover, to Ranjha, the protagonist of the legend and a symbol of
divinity in the Sufi tradition. This Sufi tradition also borrows from the
Bhakhti tradition of Hinduism, in which Radha is represented as an ideal
devotee approaching her God, Krishna, the male figure.

“He was an
eccentric man,” said Iqbal Qaiser. “He used to roam around different cities and
villages with a pack of dogs. Whatever food people used to offer to the saint,
he would give it to his dogs.”

The minaret of the mosque in Pattoki. Credit: Haroon Khalid

Peer Abbass
belonged to a particular school of thought within the Sufi tradition of Islam,
known as the Malamti sect. Prominent German Anthropologist Jürgen Wasim
Frembgen defines the Malamti sect as a free Sufi order that is influenced by
indigenous South Asian traditions. One of the sect’s most important features is
the concealment of their spiritual achievements. They do so by violating
religious laws, indulging in reprehensible behaviour in public, and associating
with those who are socially disgraced and stigmatised. For them salvation lies
in inviting disdain and humiliation from their fellow humans. In this way, they
are able to curb their ego and hence focus on divinity.

By preferring the
company of dogs over humans, or any other animal, Peer Abbas was aiming to do
exactly that. Dogs are considered impure in the Islamic tradition. According to
Hadith literature, which is a collection of sayings of Prophet Muhammad, dogs
are not to be allowed inside the house and if one ever comes in contact with a
dog’s saliva religious ablution is required. The Maliki school of thought, one
of the most prominent schools of thought in Islamic jurisprudence, holds that
touching a dog entails an impurity that is removed by a lesser ablution. A few
other sayings attributed to Prophet Muhammad state that angels do not enter a
house where there are dogs. Muslim scholars interpreting the Hadith have
further said that dogs profane a mosque or a prayer place by their presence, a
defilement that can only be corrected by physically removing them and
symbolically washing the place they touched by earth and clean water.

One can therefore
imagine the disdain Peer Abbas must have invited by associating with an impure
animal. Here he was reversing the order of sacred and profane, by casting the
profane as sacred. One can find parallels of this tradition in the tantric
cult, where the sacred becomes profane and profane sacred.

There are of
course direct comparisons between Peer Abbas’s idiosyncratic association with
dogs and Shaivism. For example, Lord Shiva, in his terrifying form, ugra, is accompanied by a pack of dogs,
while he is depicted as mendicant ascetic. In Tantrism, Shiva, in the
incarnation of Bhairava, is depicted either with the face of a dog or has a dog
as his vehicle. In Bhairav temples all over India, devotees offer prayers to
the statues of dogs or living dogs. Dogs wander inside and outside the temple
of Kalbhairav in Varanasi, and are garlanded by worshippers. Others present
them with food offerings as a form of worship.

Soon after my
initial sighting of the shrine of Peer Abbass, I decided to visit his shrine
along with Iqbal Qaiser. I navigated the car through the narrow streets of the
town. Vans, cars, motorcycles, rickshaws and pedestrians, all vied for space in
this market town. The one with the biggest vehicle and the most audacious horn
got the way. On different walls of the town I noticed posters announcing the
date of the urs of Peer Abbas. In the Sufi tradition, death anniversary of a
saint is celebrated with much pomp and fair as opposed to birthdays. The
celebration is known as urs. This is
because it is believed that after his death the Sufi becomes one with the
divine existence, a concept similar to Monoism of Hinduism. This union is
represented as a marriage ceremony where the divine is understood to be the
husband (Krishna or Ranjha) while the bride (Radha or Heer) is the Sufi.

The shrine was
located at the centre of the city. At its threshold, there were a handful of
dogs lazing around in the sun. They had wreaths around their necks. They were
unperturbed by our presence as we passed around them. The grave of the saint
was located in one corner. More work was being done to renovate the complex, of
which the mosque was now the biggest structure. Iqbal Qaiser had earlier told
me that dogs freely roam around the complex, choosing to rest near the grave of
the saint. However there were none here.

A devotee offers meat to dogs. Credit: Haroon Khalid.

We walked out of
the complex and entered a courtyard facing the shrine. Here we met Jaffar
Qazmi, the son of the current gadi nasheen. A 40-year-old man, Jaffar Qazmi teaches
at the government school of Pattoki. After his father, he would become the head
of this religious organisation. “Once while Peer Abbas was returning to Pattoki,
it started raining heavily. He protected himself with his shawl but saw that a
bitch and her puppies were drenched in the rain. The saint felt bad for them
and covered them with his shawl while he soaked in the rain. After the rain
stopped, Peer Abbas left for his next destination and the bitch and her puppies
followed him. They remained with the saint after that day and became his
devotees. Peer Abbas loved them and would present food and drinks to his pets
before he had it himself. These dogs here are the progeny of the original dog
that followed the saint.”

“The dogs at the
shrine are treated with particular respect because of their association with
the saint,” continued Jaffar Qazmi. “They have become famous as the dogs of
Peer Abbas and whenever devotees visit the shrine to seek the blessings of the
saint, they bring along food offerings like sweets, milk and meat for the dogs.
They know that these dogs are the saint’s favourites, and in order to please
him they have to please them. No one is rude to them. I’ll tell you about an
incident. Once there was a man passing by the shrine holding a rope that was
tied to a hen walking behind him. I was watching the scene from this veranda.
One of the dogs of the saint snatched the rope from him and took away the hen.
The owner could only look on in disappointment.”

“What happens if
someone harms the dogs by accident?” I asked.

“It is for this
reason that we have wreaths around their necks to distinguish them from the
stray dogs that also roam around the city. This is to avoid any such incident,
even by accident.”

“So what do the
dogs do all day?”

“They just lie
next to the shrine or roam around the city. Right now you can only see
four-five dogs but there are about thirty dogs of the saint, who return to the
shrine at one point or the other. The numbers have gone down since we stopped
allowing the dogs to go inside the shrine.”

“Why did you stop
them?”

“There are a few
devotees of the saint who objected to the practice. They said that the shrine
is a pure place whose sanctity is defiled by the presence of impure animals
like dogs.”

“But when the
saint did not have any problem living and eating with these animals, what right
do his devotees have to object to their presence at his shrine?”

“I agree with you.
This is what the saint wanted. But these people are his devotees and we have to
listen to them.”

Puritanical interpretations

I wasn’t convinced
by his explanation. After all, he and his family were caretakers of the shrine
and they could perpetuate the practice. Why would they listen to a fringe group
of devotees? It was on the way back when I was discussing the issue with Iqbal
Qaiser that the situation became clearer. Like other shrines in the country,
this one thrives off the donations from devotees. The devotees who objected to
the presence of dogs inside the shrine must be a powerful group whose donations
constitute a considerable percentage of the total amount of money received by
the shrine. The caretakers were happy to abandon the cultural practice of the
saint while cashing in on his legacy.

“But no matter
where the dogs are, all of them return on the occasion of the urs,” Jaffar said.

“They probably
return for all the food that the pilgrims bring along,” I joked.

“No. Actually for
that entire week the dogs do not eat at all. Even if you put meat in front of
them they refuse.”

As we drove back
to Lahore I reflected on how even within the Islamic tradition there were so
many distinctive traditions, a remnant of the multi-religious and cultural
society that once was. But whereas the non-Muslim culture of Pakistan was wiped
off after Partition, it is now indigenous Islamic traditions like the shrine of
Peer Abbas that are being replaced by a homogenous puritan interpretation of
Islam. The minaret of the shrine would be like any other minaret of the
country, representing a uniform culture.

An obscure smadh in the middle of Pattoki. Credit: Haroon Khalid

Haroon Khalid is the author, most recently, of In Search of Shiva: a
study of folk religious practices in Pakistan.

The right machine can save water, power consumption, time, energy and your clothes from damage.

In 2010, Han Rosling, a Swedish statistician, convinced a room full of people that the washing machine was the greatest invention of the industrial revolution. In the TED talk delivered by him, he illuminates how the washing machine freed women from doing hours of labour intensive laundry, giving them the time to read books and eventually join the labour force. Rosling’s argument rings true even today as it is difficult to deny the significance of the washing machine in our everyday lives.

For many households, buying a washing machine is a sizable investment. Oddly, buyers underestimate the importance of the decision-making process while buying one and don’t research the purchase as much as they would for a television or refrigerator. Most buyers limit their buying criteria to type, size and price of the washing machine.

Visible technological advancements can be seen all around us, making it fair to expect a lot more from household appliances, especially washing machines. Here are a few features to expect and look out for before investing in a washing machine:

Cover your basics

Do you wash your towels every day? How frequently do you do your laundry? Are you okay with a bit of manual intervention during the wash cycle? These questions will help filter the basic type of washing machine you need. The semi-automatics require manual intervention to move clothes from the washing tub to the drying tub and are priced lower than a fully-automatic. A fully-automatic comes in two types: front load and top load. Front loading machines use less water by rotating the inner drum and using gravity to move the clothes through water.

Simple steps to get the best from your washing machineSimple steps to get the best from your washing machineSimple steps to get the best from your washing machine

Size matters

The size or the capacity of the machine is directly proportional to the consumption of electricity. The right machine capacity depends on the daily requirement of the household. For instance, for couples or individuals, a 6kg capacity would be adequate whereas a family of four might need an 8 kg or bigger capacity for their laundry needs. This is an important factor to consider since the wrong decision can consume an unnecessary amount of electricity.

Machine intelligence that helps save time

In situations when time works against you and your laundry, features of a well-designed washing machine can come to rescue. There are programmes for urgent laundry needs that provide clean laundry in a super quick 15 to 30 minutes’ cycle; a time delay feature that can assist you to start the laundry at a desired time etc. Many of these features dispel the notion that longer wash cycles mean cleaner clothes. In fact, some washing machines come with pre-activated wash cycles that offer shortest wash cycles across all programmes without compromising on cleanliness.

The green quotient

Despite the conveniences washing machines offer, many of them also consume a substantial amount of electricity and water. By paying close attention to performance features, it’s possible to find washing machines that use less water and energy. For example, there are machines which can adjust the levels of water used based on the size of the load. The reduced water usage, in turn, helps reduce the usage of electricity. Further, machines that promise a silent, no-vibration wash don’t just reduce noise – they are also more efficient as they are designed to work with less friction, thus reducing the energy consumed.

Customisable washing modes

Crushed dresses, out-of-shape shirts and shrunken sweaters are stuff of laundry nightmares. Most of us would rather take out the time to hand wash our expensive items of clothing rather than trusting the washing machine. To get the dirt out of clothes, washing machines use speed to first agitate the clothes and spin the water out of them, a process that takes a toll on the fabric. Fortunately, advanced machines come equipped with washing modes that control speed and water temperature depending on the fabric. While jeans and towels can endure a high-speed tumble and spin action, delicate fabrics like silk need a gentler wash at low speeds. Some machines also have a monsoon mode. This is an India specific mode that gives clothes a hot rinse and spin to reduce drying time during monsoons. A super clean mode will use hot water to clean the clothes deeply.

Washing machines have come a long way, from a wooden drum powered by motor to high-tech machines that come equipped with automatic washing modes. Bosch washing machines include all the above-mentioned features and provide damage free laundry in an energy efficient way. With 32 different washing modes, Bosch washing machines can create custom wash cycles for different types of laundry, be it lightly soiled linens, or stained woollens. The ActiveWater feature in Bosch washing machines senses the laundry load and optimises the usage of water and electricity. Its EcoSilentDrive motor draws energy from a permanent magnet, thereby saving energy and giving a silent wash. The fear of expensive clothes being wringed to shapelessness in a washing machine is a common one. The video below explains how Bosch’s unique VarioDrumTM technology achieves damage free laundry.